Any Little Green Men Out There?

Believe it or not, there is an astronomical object called LGM-1—the letters of which stand for ‘Little Green Men’. This was the first pulsar ever discovered. A pulsar is a very dense star which rotates so rapidly that it sends out extremely regular ‘pulses’ of radio waves.

The scientists who discovered this hitherto unknown, strangely regular signal, flashing its pulses every one-and-a-third seconds, were puzzled. Perhaps this was in fact some alien civilization trying to contact us, they somewhat facetiously suggested to each other. Anyway, the name stuck. But would scientists seriously contemplate such an idea as Little Green Men?

In fact, this year millions of US tax-payers’ dollars are being spent on a massive search for just that. NASA magazine in 1991 stated that on the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s landing, on October 12, 1992, scientists were to begin exploring for other worlds by ‘listening to distant stars for signs that humans are not alone in the universe’.

This search is managed by NASA’s Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program office, based solely on belief in evolution as a fact. A SETI information sheet indicates that since evolution has happened here on earth, why shouldn’t it have happened throughout the cosmos? They say that ‘there may now be about 10 million advanced civilizations in our galaxy alone.’

How will they look for these? Briefly, by using radio telescopes and other electronic equipment designed to look for pulsed signals and other ordered signals or sequences (as distinct from random radio ‘noise’). If their assumption of evolution is not true (and it is not) then 10 million tax dollars per year for the next 10 years will have been spent on merely demonstrating what is obvious and what the Bible makes clear—man did not evolve.

Just as those scientists who discovered the regular pulses from what we now know is a pulsar contemplated Little Green Men, so the SETI scientists will get very excited if they find some sort of regular pulse from outer space that they can’t explain. Even something as simple as ‘Pulse … pulse … pulse’ could be enough for them to investigate whether this could be from ‘extraterrestrial beings’.

Seeing intelligence

What is so illogical and inconsistent about all this is that these same scientists would only have to change their telescopes for microscopes, as it were, and observe the DNA in the chromosomes of any living creature. They would see a highly complex code, an ordered language, making up the most highly complex, ordered information sequence in the universe. When scientists look at it, they say—chance! Yet if they received the simplest of ordered sequences possible from outer space, they would say—intelligence!

No scientists have ever seen a complex language system like our DNA evolve by chance. They know that it takes information to get information, that information never arises unless an intelligence is operating. Yet they refuse to consider the possibility that the vast amount of information contained in life on earth was programmed by intelligence. They refuse to accept the possibility that the God of creation as spoken of in the Holy Scriptures is that intelligence—the infinitely intelligent Creator. Why? It would mean that this Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ, is Lord over them, and they must kneel and worship Him, and accept their sinfulness and the need for salvation.

As those scientists look into outer space, it is as if they are shaking their fists at Jesus Christ, defiantly saying ‘we refuse to accept you as Lord over us.’

If only NASA would realize that they don’t have to waste millions of dollars of other people’s money searching for an intelligence out there. Without even using a telescope, look up at the night sky. What do you see?

‘The heavens declare the glory of God: and the firmament sheweth his handiwork’ (Psalm 19:1).

‘The heavens declare his righteousness, and all the people see his glory’ (Psalm 97:6).

Incredible order

Look at the incredible order in our DNA. What do you see?

‘For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse’ (Romans 1:20).

These scientists know deep down there is a God (Romans 1:19). Every human has a God-consciousness which the Creator placed there. The Greeks in Acts 17, even with all their idols, still had one to the unknown God; in their hearts they knew there was more to life than what they had.

NASA scientists today know there is an intelligence greater than they. They know there has to be more than just us. In a sense, they are desperately trying to find God, not accepting that God has already found them.

The God of the universe has provided us with a written revelation, the Scriptures, and came to earth to be a man so he could pay the penalty for our sin, to enable us to live for eternity with Him.

The SETI people can use their telescopes and electronic equipment as much as they want, but the Scripture remains true:

‘For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them’ (Matthew 13:15).